OxByzList: Trinity Week 2 Oxford Listings, 10 - 16 May
Oxford University Byzantine Society
- President: Chairs Committee meetings, represents the Society at termly meetings of the LABS Inter-Faculty Committee, compiles and circulates the Byzness, and develops the programme for the year with the assistance of the other Committee members. The President has ultimate responsibility for the direction of the Society.
- Secretary: Takes minutes of Committee meetings, maintains the Society mailing lists, liaises with the Proctors, arranges the Christmas dinner and the conference dinner, produces the weekly Oxford Listings, acts as returning officer for Society elections, and manages the pre-Michaelmas mentoring system.
- Treasurer: Manages the Society bank account, keeps up-to-date financial records and membership lists, oversees grant applications, and assists with ad hoc tasks as necessary. As per the constitution, this role can also be appointed at a point during the year without elections.
- IT Officer (optional): Manages the Society’s website and social media accounts, designs the MSt/MPhil induction leaflet and conference materials, and assists with ad hoc tasks as necessary.
Monday
11/05/2026, 17:00 - Wharton Room, All Souls College, High St, OX1 4AL; for Teams access join group “Medieval History Research Seminar” (team code rmppucs)
Medieval History Research Seminar - Round table on Richard Hodges’s The Origins of Anglo-Saxon
Towns: A Viking Gift? (London, 2025) with John Blair, Helen Gittos, Helena Hamerow, and Rory Naismith
11/05/2026, 17:15 - Lecture Theatre, Weston Library, Broad Street, OX1 3BG
The Lyell Lectures - Mercedes García-Arenal (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Madrid): Muslim Book in Christian Hands: From Iberian Moriscos to Early Modern Europe.
Booking required. For more information visit visit.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/event/the-lyell-lectures-2026.
Tuesday
12/05/2026, 12:30 - Levett Room, Wolfson College, Linton Road, OX2 6UD
Elena Ene Drăghici-Vasilescu (Oxford): Medieval Ideology and the Muscovy Company
12/05/2026, 14:00 - Catherine Lewis Lecture Theatre, Clarendon Institute, Walton Street Oxford, OX1 2HG
Seminar on Jewish History and Literature - Camilla Recalcati (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem): “The Septuagint and the Fayumic Communities”
In order to participate in this lecture via Zoom, please register at this link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/e4Tb48cySm6W4gbRrF-mpg
12/05/2026, 16:30 - Robert Beddard Room, Oriel College, Oriel Square, OX1 4EW
Patristics Research Seminar - Gabrielle Thomas (Emory): Becoming Divine and Becoming Diabolic according to Gregory of Nyssa’s Homilies
12/05/2026, 13:00 - First Floor Seminar Room, Ioannou Centre for Classical and Byzantine Studies, 66 St Giles’, OX1 3LU
Byzantine Epistles and Prosopography: Mapping the Lost Byzantine Generations of the Thirteenth Century
The fragmentation of Byzantium into a multitude of states from 1204 and until the Palaiologan reconquest of 1261 represents a terra incognita for current prosopographies of Byzantium. Outside of the chronological coverage of both the Prosopography of the Byzantine World (PBW) and the Prosopographisches Lexikon der Palaiologenzeit (PLP) research initiatives, these two/three generations of Byzantine society are not detailed in any currently published database.
The information to connect the two established research tools lies in the vast and often overlooked corpora of some 500 letters produced in the thirteenth-century Balkans. These texts detail how peoples navigated a liminal life between the Byzantine successor-states, Latin Crusaders, and Slavonic-speaking powers. Often demonstrating the survival or reconstitution of imperial institutions and offices beyond the collapse of central authority, this seminar series is designed as a means to read these letters. The focus will be on identifying the individuals either written to or described, and placing them within a chronological and geographical window.
With the aid of digital mapping and database management, these individuals can be brought to light and contextualised and a black hole of digital humanities in Byzantium slowly filled. We will be working initially on the dossier of Demetrios Chomatenos, Archbishop of Ohrid (1216–1236), foremost legal mind of his day.
All welcome. Interested participants should contact Nathan Websdale at nathan....@history.ox.ac.uk.
12/05/2026, 16:00 - Rector’s Drawing Room, Exeter College, Turl Street, OX1 3DP
Byzantine Literature Lectures - Stratis Papaioannou (Oxford): “The View from the Margins: Byzantine Literature of the Provinces (9th to 13th century)"
No knowledge of Greek is required.
Topics:
May 5: Syro-Palestine, Constantinople, Italy I: Saints at the Limits
May 12: Syro-Palestine, Constantinople, Italy II: Rite and Sacred Song
May 19: Monastic Networks: Mt. Athos and Mar Saba
May 26: Provincial Portraits: Cappadocia, Antioch, Paphos, and Trebizond
June 2: The “Western” Frontier: Sicily, Southern Italy, and Learned Literature
For info, contact: stratis.p...@mod-langs.ox.ac.uk.
Wednesday
13/05/2026, 12:15 - Lecture Room, Campion Hall, OX1 1QS
Syriac Lunch Seminar - Xiaoyan Ji: Rewriting the Magi in Old Uighur: Syriac Christianity in the Central Asian Context
Participation is open to graduate students and postdoctoral researchers from all academic fields and is by invitation. Those interested in attending are kindly asked to contact Katherine Painter (katherin...@theology.ox.ac.uk) by the Sunday prior to the date(s) they wish to attend so that complementary lunch can be provided.
This seminar is made possible by the generous sponsorship of Campion Hall and the Dolabani Fund for Syriac Studies.
13/05/2026, 15:15 - Rector’s Drawing Room, Exeter College, Turl Street, OX1 3DP
Byzantine Text Seminar - Stratis Papaioannou (Oxford): Readings from a variety of genres and texts (4th-15th c.)
For info, contact: stratis.p...@mod-langs.ox.ac.uk.
13/05/2026, 17:00 - Lecture Theatre, Ioannou Centre for Classical and Byzantine Studies, 66 St Giles’, OX1 3LU
Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar - Pawel Nowakowski (Warsaw): New Fragments of the Order (forma generalis) of the Praetorian Prefect of the East, Pusaeus Dionysius, 480 CE, from Stratonikeia in Caria
Online teams link here.
13/05/2026, 17:00 - Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, Marston Road OX3 0EE
Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies - Harry Munt (University of York): Haram Historiography: Writing the History of Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem in the Early Islamic Centuries
Thursday
14/05/2026, 17:00 - Dorfman Centre, St Peter’s College, OX1 2DL
After Roman and Further East Seminar - Ab de Jong (Leiden): Late Sasanian Zoroastrianism and the Meaning of Iran(ian)
14/05/2026, 17:15 - KRC Lecture Room, Khalili Research Centre, 3 St John St, OX1 2LJ
Khalili Research Seminar - Deniz Turker (University of Cambridge): Beside the Sultan: Harem Patronage and Dynastic Networks in the Reign of Selim III (1789-1807)
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Nidanu O'Shea
DPhil in Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
Secretary, Oxford University Byzantine Society
http://oxfordbyzantinesociety.wordpress.com